Ms Andrea Keane:

I thank the committee for the invitation to appear before it. I am joined by Mr. Ciarán Rogan, our chief customer officer. Dublin Bus operates a large network of services for our customers under a direct award contact with the NTA. The customer is at the heart of everything we do in Dublin Bus. We know that we are a part of their daily lives and they are part of ours. We are always quick to acknowledge and apologise to our customers and all those impacted when the standards delivered are below the levels expected by our customers and I want to apologise to those customers directly impacted today.

I also want to assure the committee that Dublin Bus has been working and is continuing to work to deliver improved service levels for all customers. We deliver for our customers every day and have worked with him through challenging times, events such as severe weather and Covid, and we know we would overcome the current challenges as we have overcome all others - through the application of our expertise, our experience, our knowledge of the transport industry and our constant commitment to doing the right thing for the city and our customers.

We hold ourselves to high standards, which are independently validated through stringent performance metrics, as set out in the direct award contract. In October, our 3,800-strong team returned to carrying 400,000 customers a day on weekdays and we are currently operating over 7,000 trips each day. This is a return to pre-Covid levels of customer demand.

This is a very exciting time for public transport with significant investment in services for all customers. We have, in conjunction with the NTA, successfully implemented four phases of the BusConnects network redesign project in the last year. This has included the introduction of new 24-hour routes and a significant increase in kilometres operated. We have done all this while facing the most difficult of headwinds, a once-in-a-generation pandemic and the operational challenges posed by a highly competitive labour market. We have also had issues with real-time passenger information for customers. This system plays a huge role in helping people plan their journeys and therefore causes significant problems when it is not performing as it should. My opening statement today will address the service levels and driver recruitment, real-time passenger information and measures to improve the customer experience.

The vast majority of Dublin Bus services operate on time and on schedule. In the first six months of this year, we operated 97% of all services, which is just 1% off our target. More recently, this has reduced to 95% of services, which is 3% off target. The pace of expansion of the network is outstripping the pace of recruitment of new staff, particularly in our driver grade. Dublin Bus was planning for network expansion and recruitment and we funded a specific campaign to recruit staff alongside the NTA general transport-wide campaign. We have recruited almost 290 new drivers this year alone, and we are constantly looking at new and innovative ways to increase our driver and maintenance staff numbers. However, even with this number of new drivers, we are not keeping pace with the rate of network expansion and very much regret the impact this is having on customers. All of our employees are working very hard to minimise the impact of these challenges.

Driving a bus is a very responsible job. It is a safety-critical role and Dublin Bus has always viewed the safety of our customers as our top priority. The acceptance rate for drivers from application to employment is consistent with previous trends. I reassure the committee that the company does not compromise the high standards needed to provide a safe and professional service, while also recruiting at a rate far in excess of previous years. Dublin Bus continues to welcome new drivers into the company each month once they have completed the professional training at our training school and we are actively managing the current challenges through a combination of measures that we have put in place.

On the RTPI, we fully understand our customers rely on this to plan their journeys. The accuracy of the system, which is surveyed regularly by the NTA, had previously been very high but reliability has unfortunately deteriorated in recent months.

We are very aware that any prolonged inaccuracies with the RTPI system dilutes the confidence our customers have in these systems. As the NTA noted, there are three main systems: the on-street signs, the Dublin Bus app and the Transport for Ireland app. Each bus has an automatic vehicle location system that tracks its progress along the route. This is the key device sending information to the key Dublin Bus app and NTA systems. Unfortunately, all of these systems have had software problems in recent months, which both Dublin Bus and the NTA have been working very hard to fix. We introduced a series of software changes, the latest in September, which corrected several issues and the NTA introduced a software change on 25 October. It is to be hoped that this has corrected its back-office system. We have also conducted a number of additional surveys and checks on our systems in addition to the independent NTA surveys. While the indications are that the recent software changes have successfully corrected the errors, we will continue to monitor these systems to make sure they are once again providing correct information for customers.

The technical issues with the RTPI system have unfortunately coincided with driver recruitment challenges which have resulted in us cancelling more services than usual. These cancelled trips should be removed from the real-time information system in a timely manner but, in some cases, this was not happening. This problem was identified by our surveys and analysis and a new process was put in place to manage and address it.

It may also be worth noting that the NTA is currently procuring a new single automatic vehicle location, AVL, system to be used by all bus operators. This will be a new system with technology that is more up to date. The NTA has advised Dublin Bus that a contract for this new system will be awarded in 2023. A roll-out plan will be produced at that point. In addition, the Dublin Bus app is now approaching the end of its life. The NTA's strategy is for customers to use one app, the Transport for Ireland app. Dublin Bus will shortly be introducing a new and improved website. As part of this new website, we will be migrating customers who currently use the Dublin Bus app to the Transport for Ireland app. A full communications plan for customers will be provided as part of this migration process.

Dublin Bus is part of our customers' daily lives and they rely on our services to take them where they need to go. While the vast majority of our services continue to operate to timetable, we are very aware that any reduction in service levels has an impact on our customers. We are currently working to ensure both service levels and real-time information are as accurate as possible and to provide communications with our customers and more timely updates on all service-related issues.

Dublin Bus has a long history of serving the people who live in, work in and visit Dublin. We fully appreciate the importance of a reliable bus service and the provision of accurate information. We know that what some customers have experienced recently falls short of the service they have come to expect from Dublin Bus. These recent challenges jar with our track record of providing a positive customer experience for the 400,000 people who use our services every day. The work to improve customer information and the accuracy of real-time information is critical. The company will continue to monitor these systems to ensure that accuracy levels are maintained and confidence in these systems is restored.

Our employee recruitment campaign is continuing at pace and we continue to welcome new drivers to the company each month. However, it will take some time before driver numbers are restored to the level required to meet the needs of our current and expanding network of services. We are confident that the very significant programme of work being carried out will restore our customer experience to the standards our customers expect and deserve. As I noted, we deliver for our customers every day. That is embedded in our culture and is part of the Dublin Bus way of life. I speak for all our employees when I say that we have a proud history of serving the people of Dublin. I cannot deny that we are facing challenges, particularly with regard to the timing of driver recruitment, but we are meeting them as we have met and overcome all previous challenges for our customers.